Lawmaker to File Suit Charging Abuse of His Disabled Son

Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg with his son Ricky, 54. The assemblyman says an employee at a group home on Long Island abused his son.Credit
Michael Kirby Smith for The New York Times

ALBANY — Ricky Weisenberg, 54, has a severe mental disability, cannot speak or even cry, and has cerebral palsy. But his parents know their way around the system: his father, Harvey Weisenberg, is a state assemblyman and the Legislature’s most prominent advocate for people with disabilities.

So when Assemblyman Weisenberg was informed that his son had been abused at the group home where he resided, he was shocked.

“I’m even emotional right now,” Assemblyman Weisenberg, 78, a Democrat from Long Beach, said in an interview. “Torturing somebody, tormenting somebody, it breaks your heart. Ricky is docile. He’s sweet; he’s not aggressive. He’s a baby. All I want to do is give him a happy day.”

Assemblyman Weisenberg, more than three years after he learned of the abuse accusations, plans to file suit on Monday in Brooklyn federal court against AHRC Nassau, a local chapter of the nation’s largest provider of services to people with developmental disabilities. The lawsuit is also to name as an additional defendant Dwayne Edwards, the employee Mr. Weisenberg says abused his son.

The suit highlights some of the shortcomings in the state’s care and oversight of vulnerable populations, and says that Mr. Edwards, who was fired, is now working as a caregiver at the United Cerebral Palsy Association of Nassau County.

“We have somebody who abused and neglected somebody, he lost his job and now he’s working again,” Assemblyman Weisenberg said. “I don’t understand why people who break the rules and put our families at risk go back to work.”

Robert McGuire, the executive director of the cerebral palsy association, did not return calls for comment on Thursday and Friday. Another official at the agency, Patricia Quinn, would not comment or confirm that Mr. Edwards was an employee there.

The Nassau AHRC chapter, which is a state-regulated private provider of services, did not refer claims of physical abuse to the police. The Weisenbergs complained to the police, but no charges were brought against Mr. Edwards.

Mr. Edwards, in an interview, denied that he had ever abused Ricky Weisenberg.

“There was no harm done to anybody,” he said, adding, “There was no abuse.”

He would not discuss where he currently worked.

An internal 2009 AHRC report, obtained by The New York Times, substantiated allegations of both psychological and physical abuse against Ricky Weisenberg, saying the abuse “could have been ongoing” and expressing concern that it had not been reported sooner.

“If you look at the internal report, this was not an isolated incident,” said Ilann M. Maazel, a lawyer at the firm Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady, which is representing the Weisenbergs. “It was a series of incidents of abuse over a period of time, witnessed by a number of people. Why wasn’t the abuse stopped earlier?”

According to the report, three employees, whom Assemblymen Weisenberg did not name, said Mr. Edwards would antagonize Ricky Weisenberg by flicking him on the back of the neck; one of those employees said Mr. Edwards would often hit Ricky Weisenberg “in the back of his head” and curse at him. Another said he had heard Mr. Edwards, using an expletive, refer to Ricky Weisenberg as a “Jew” and as “the Gurgitator.”

“He said he can’t stand him and ‘get him out of here,’ ” that employee added.

But Mary McNamara, a spokeswoman for AHRC Nassau, said the firing did stem from the abuse investigation. Nonetheless, Ms. McNamara said she was “taken aback” to learn that Assemblyman Weisenberg would be filing suit.

“He’s a parent, a donor; even after this incident he encouraged families to be generous financially with us,” she said, adding that Assemblyman Weisenberg was scheduled to speak at an AHRC luncheon this month.

Indeed, Ricky Weisenberg is still a resident of AHRC and Assemblyman Weisenberg said that he admired the staff and much of what the agency did, but that he wanted to bring attention to his son’s case, in part because he recently learned that Mr. Edwards was still working as a caregiver.

Assemblyman Weisenberg and his wife, Ellen, are seeking compensatory and punitive damages, which they say they would donate to organizations that serve people with developmental disabilities, as well as reimbursement of their legal fees.

“If it can happen to us, it can happen to anybody,” Ms. Weisenberg said. “I just think it’s something necessary that we have to do and bring it to light. We’re not suing for any money; we’re suing to have it be known and have something be done about it.”

The Legislature approved a bill this year, championed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, that would reshape the oversight for people with developmental disabilities and other vulnerable populations. The legislation, which Mr. Cuomo has not yet signed, would create an employment registry of workers in public and private facilities to help prevent the rehiring of abusive workers. The database is not scheduled to become active until the middle of next year.

A version of this article appears in print on October 1, 2012, on page A18 of the New York edition with the headline: Lawmaker to File Suit Charging Abuse of His Disabled Son. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe